Meet Our Team

Meet our Team:

The Abolition Institute, located in Chicago, Illinois in the United States, was inspired by the groundbreaking CNN expose "Slavery’s Last Stronghold" by John Sutter and the efforts of Mauritanians, both inside and outside their country, to end slavery. The board members of the Abolition Institute are:

Ambareen Quratulain: Human rights advocate of Muslim Women

Brady Chalmers: SEIU Healthcare

Imam Tariq El-Amin: Masjid Al-Taqwa

John Ferrin: U.S. Army (retired)

Reverend Mitchell Johnson

Lew Jones: Online advocacy strategist

Attorney Michael Kurtz

Lynda Holiday Lawrence: Championing Freedom

Harriet Lewis: Inner-City Muslim Action Network

Reverend Gregory Seal Livingston

Attorney Renato Marriotti

Alex Meixner: Former Policy Director and Spokesperson of the Save Dafur Coalition

They are joined by dedicated stakeholders including lawyers, non-profit and foundation professionals, faith leaders, Islamic scholars, women’s rights advocates and refugees from Mauritania who know the horrors of slavery firsthand.

We are honored to work with SOS Esclaves , one of our partner organizations in Mauritania, which has been fighting against slavery – under constant threat of imprisonment and violence from pro-slavery forces – since 1995. SOS Esclaves was founded by Boubacar Messaoud, whose family was enslaved, and Abdel Nasser Ould Othman Yessa, the son of a prominent Mauritanian minister and himself a former slave master who recognized the evils of the system.

In addition, the Abolition Institute strongly supports allowing the Initiative de Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste en Mauritanie to legally register as an NGO. They have been fearless advocates in the fight against slavery in Mauritania.

The Abolition Institute is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. Contributions to the Abolition Institute are tax deductible to the full extent allowable by law.

The Abolition Institute began as a small but enthusiastic grassroots effort. Chicagoans (pictured here at our first meeting in 2013) were inspired by those fighting for freedom in Mauritania just as abolitionists from the United States – black and white - struggled against slavery since the founding of our own country. In this photo we hold a framed Harper's Weekly newspaper from February 18, 1865 depicting the celebration in the United States House of Representatives upon passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.